'Anora' wins the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival

The tragicomedy of romance Anorafrom the screenwriter and director Sean Baker, won the Palme d'Orthe highest prize of the Cannes Film Festivalin its 2024 edition.

This marked Baker's second time participating in the competition after Red Rocket (2021), and tonight's victory signified the realization of what Baker said has been his “singular goal as a filmmaker for the last 30 years.” Baker is the director of other acclaimed feature films such as Tangerine (2015), y The Florida Project (2017).

Anora from the film company NEONis starred by Mikey Madison (Scream 5) as a Brooklyn stripper who transforms into a modern-day Cinderella when she meets the son of a Russian oligarch. Complications arise when her parents find out about her and try to annul the marriage.

Greta Gerwig, president of the Cannes 2024 jury, presented the Palme d'Or to Baker, saying: “This particular film, this incredibly human film that captured our hearts, made us laugh, allowed us to hope beyond all hope and then broke our hearts and we never lost sight of the truth.”

In accepting the award, Baker stated about the importance of cinema:

“I am going to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we must fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical exhibition. The world needs to be reminded that watching a movie at home while scrolling through your phone checking emails and half-paying attention is simply not the way, even though some tech companies would like us to think that way.”

“Watching movies with other people in a movie theater is one of the great communal experiences: we share laughter, sorrow, anger, fear, and hopefully have catharsis with our friends and strangers, and that is sacred. That's why I say that the future of cinema is where it began, in a movie theater.”

SOME DATA:

• Anora marked the fifth consecutive Palme d'Or won by the distributor NEONafter having won it with Parasite, Titanium, Triangle of Sadnessy Anatomy of a Fall.
• Baker is the first American filmmaker to win the Palme d'Or since Terrence Malick's triumph in 2011 with The Tree of Life.

Anora It will be distributed internationally by Focus Features and Universal Pictures.